Microwave ovens have found widespread usage in the food industry for the rapid reconstitution of food items which have been precooked by conventional means, held at storage temperatures until needed for serving, and then rapidly brought to serving temperature in a microwave oven. Several hundred thousand full service restaurants save labor, reduce waste, improve food quality uniformity and increase the speed of seating turn-over by this method of operation. In many cases, multiple retail outlets are supplied from a single centralized food kitchen which manufactures preplated menu items on a production basis for distribution to the remote outlets. Appreciable savings are realized since skilled labor such as chefs is eliminated at the retail outlets, expensive primary cooking equipment is minimized, and food waste is drastically reduced by re-stocking items only as sold.
Such use of microwave reconstitution of food items by full-service restaurants naturally suggests further streamlining of the system for more casual modes of consumption, such as automatic vending. To date, vending operators have used separate microwave ovens for heating food items dispensed from standard commercial vending machines. This system has suffered from several problems which have limited its practicality:
(a) The public, not being familiar with the use of microwave ovens, has been reticent to attempt their use in a public place. PA1 (b) The microwave oven, being available for unauthorized useage, is used for heating items not obtained from the vending operators machines. PA1 (c) The oven is exposed to abuses by the public such as operation without proper load, or operation with metallic containers such as foil. Such uses seriously reduce the life and reliability of the oven. PA1 (d) The operation of the microwave oven by the public user exposes the vending operator to legal action because of real or alleged harm to the user due to electrical shock or microwave leakage hazards.
It is accordingly an objective of this invention to provide a totally unattended, automated device which avoids all of the above shortcomings.